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  • Mark Clowes, 53, left his girlfriend Clare Bell, 42, in a ‘scalding hot bath’
  • He called emergency services six hours later but Ms Bell was dead when they arrived at the home in Audley, Stoke-on-Trent

An alcoholic who killed his girlfriend by leaving her in a ‘scalding hot bath’ and ignoring her cries for help has avoided prison and moaned that he has been through ‘three-and-a-half years of hell’.

Mark Clowes, 53, was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter after his girlfriend Clare Bell, 42, died because he left her in a ‘scalding hot bath’ in August 2020 at their home in Audley, Stoke-on-Trent.

Ms Bell – who also suffered from alcoholism – sustained third-degree burns to more than 30 per cent of her body and was pronounced dead hours later.

A neighbour overheard her calling out for Clowes to help her out of the bath and him replying that he would not help her. 

Mark Clowes, 53, was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter after his girlfriend Clare Bell, 42, died because he left her in a 'scalding hot bath'

Mark Clowes, 53, was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter after his girlfriend Clare Bell, 42, died because he left her in a ‘scalding hot bath’

Ms Bell - who also suffered from alcoholism - sustained third-degree burns to more than 30 per cent of her body and was pronounced dead hours later

Ms Bell – who also suffered from alcoholism – sustained third-degree burns to more than 30 per cent of her body and was pronounced dead hours later

Clowes told the court that when he did eventually get her out at 11am and put her on the bed, she was ‘shedding her skin like a snake’.

He then went downstairs to watch snooker and made two trips to a shop to buy more alcohol to drink before he finally called the emergency services at 5.10pm – over six hours later.

But by the time they arrived – just 12 minutes later – Ms Bell was already dead. 

During the sentencing at Stafford Crown Court, Mr Justice Calver KC said that had he called the emergency services earlier ‘it is possible that Clare’s life could have been saved’.

Clowes called the emergency services six hours after he got Ms Bell out of the bath but she was already dead when they arrived, just 12 minutes after the call was made

Clowes called the emergency services six hours after he got Ms Bell out of the bath but she was already dead when they arrived, just 12 minutes after the call was made

Clowes’s lawyer John Ryder KC said: ‘This is an extremely unusual case in which the harm caused and negligence proved are completely at odds with the care and devotion the defendant showed to Miss Bell during her life. Had it not been for intoxication this would never have happened. The defendant was no more able to control his drinking than Miss Bell. His alcohol dependence amounted to a disorder.’

The judge said it was a ‘one-off lapse in the otherwise satisfactory standard of care’ and handed him a two year suspended prison sentence.

He said immediate custody would be ‘inappropriate’ and ‘not in the public interest’. 

Clowes must also complete a three-month alcohol treatment and a 60-day rehabilitation activity.

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This post first appeared on Daily mail

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